Google Ads for crane and rigging companies
Contractors, estimators and plant managers search Google when they need a crane this week. We make sure a regional yard shows up above the nationals for the exact term, inside the exact radius, and that the calls are worth answering.
Search terms from a live crane account
Twelve months of real search terms, each with the call we made on it. Terms are blurred for client confidentiality.
| Search term | What it means | Call | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search term hidden | Crane service, inside the service area | Bid | 3 leads |
| Search term hidden | Equipment the client actually rents | Bid | Lead |
| Search term hidden | A training course, not a job | Exclude | Spend stopped |
| Search term hidden | Local buyer looking for a rigger | Bid | Lead |
| Search term hidden | Wrong equipment, no crane involved | Exclude | Spend stopped |
| Search term hidden | Rigging job: moving a large safe | Bid | Lead |
| Search term hidden | Someone looking for a different firm | Exclude | Spend stopped |
| Search term hidden | Specific crane class the client runs | Bid | Lead |
What this service is, in short
Google Ads for a crane or rigging company means buying the top position for the exact equipment and city a buyer types, inside the radius you actually serve, and then counting only the calls and quote requests that can become lifts. KLEXA builds and runs that account for US crane rental, crane service, rigging and machinery-moving companies: tracking first, campaigns by crane class and job type, a weekly search-term review, and reporting on cost per qualified lead rather than clicks.
On this page: Why paid search Five years of results What is included Fees Free audit FAQs
- Who it is for
- US crane rental, crane service, rigging and machinery-moving companies
- What is measured
- Tracked calls and quote requests, then booked jobs
- Fee model
- Setup fee, then nothing until the account books a job
- Who runs it
- Alamgir Anwar, founder, on every account
Why organic search will not do this for a regional yard
Equipment first, geography first. Nobody searches for “heavy equipment solutions”.
Search Keyword hidden in most metros and the organic results belong to the national rental platforms and the crane consolidators, plus a directory or two. They have marketing departments, a decade of links, and a page for every city. A twelve-crane yard is not going to out-rank them in a season, and Maps rankings move without warning.
Paid search is the one place a regional company can buy the same position as a national one. Your name at the top for the exact phrase, only inside the radius you choose, only during the hours you answer, and you pay only when a buyer clicks. It is not cheap in a dense metro, which is why the account has to be built carefully rather than switched on.
Crane and rigging is a construction trade, but generic PPC for construction companies does not fit how this work is bought. A general contractor is chasing bid lists and relationships over months; a crane is booked this week by whoever picks up the phone with the right class of machine free. That difference changes the campaign structure, the negative list and what you count as a conversion.
The people who book this work are HVAC contractors setting a rooftop unit, GC estimators pricing a steel or precast package, roofers, sign companies, tree services, machinery dealers, plant and facility managers, and a small share of homeowners with a hot tub or a safe. They search for the equipment and the place, and they want a phone number.
This is a phone business
Buyers need a same-week answer on capacity, reach and availability that no web form gives them.
- 63%of tracked leads since 2024 were phone calls, not forms
- 5.1%desktop conversion rate against 1.0% on mobile: estimators quoting from a desk
So the account is built around the phone: call assets on every ad, call tracking on the website, dispatch-hour scheduling, first-time callers separated from repeat callers, and bids that treat an office quote request as worth more than a mobile tap. Then a weekly loop where you tell us which calls were jobs, and that answer goes back into the bidding.
Figures from our crane and rigging account in New York, as of September 2026.
What five years of this looks like in one account
Rigging NYC, a crane and rigging contractor in New York City, client since 2021. Every figure is pulled from the account by API.
- $187cost per lead, 2026 year to date
- 582tracked leads since January 2024
| Year | Cost per lead | Against 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $393 | baseline |
| 2024 | $295 | 25% lower |
| 2025 | $301 | 23% lower |
| 2026 year to date | $187 | 52% lower |
As of September 2026. Leads are tracked calls and quote requests only: no map taps, no page views, no repeat callers. $150,000 of ad spend since January 2024 at a blended $258 per lead.
What our Google Ads management includes
Everything below is in the retainer as standard. Nothing is an add-on.
Tracking first
Before scaling a dollar we set up calls from ads, calls from the website, quote-form submissions, and a first-time-caller upload so repeat callers do not inflate the count. Map taps, button clicks and page views are recorded as secondary signals only.
The build
Search campaigns by crane class and job type, because boom truck, knuckle boom, carry deck, rough terrain, all-terrain and crawler work are searched for in different words and are worth different money. Location targeting by radius from each yard, set to physical presence only. Ad schedule around dispatch hours. A branded campaign so competitors cannot buy your name cheaply. A crane-specific negative list loaded before launch.
Weekly search-term review
Every week we read what people typed before they clicked. Job seekers, courses, hardware rentals, competitor names and out-of-area cities go on the negative list; new equipment and job-type phrases that produced calls get their own ad groups. This is the most important hour in the account, and the one most agencies skip.
Bidding
Manual bids while the account learns, then target cost-per-acquisition once there are enough real conversions to trust. We do not hand Google a Maximize Conversions campaign with tap-to-call counted as a conversion and hope.
Landing pages
We do not build websites, but we will tell you exactly why a page is losing the quote: no tonnage list, no NCCCO or insurance line, phone number below the fold, a form with eleven fields. If the fix is a new page, we brief it for whoever builds your site.
Reporting you can read in two minutes
Calls, quote requests, cost per qualified lead, booked jobs, and the search terms that produced them. Monthly by email, a proper review every quarter, and full access to the account at all times.
Local SEO on your Google Business Profile
Included in the monthly fee, not sold separately: categories, services, photos, posts and review responses, because Keyword hidden on Maps rings the same phone.
What counts as a crane lead
Your dispatcher already asks these five questions. We make sure the account learns from the answers.
What is being lifted
Weight and dimensions. A 30-ton pick and a 300-ton pick are different customers.
Where, exactly
Address inside the radius, ground conditions, obstructions. Port-to-port billing makes distance a price.
When
This week, in season, or a winter fill-in. Timing decides whether a crane is even free.
Reach
Radius and height needed, which decides the class you send.
Who is calling
A GC estimator, an HVAC contractor, a plant manager, a homeowner, a job seeker or a vendor. Only some of these are a job.
Calls and quote requests with those answers are leads. Taps, page views and repeat calls are not, and we do not count them. Lead generation for a crane or rigging company is judged on that number and nothing else. Each week you mark which leads became jobs; that feedback is uploaded to the account so Google bids for jobs rather than for the cheapest call.
Three kinds of company, three different campaigns
Google Ads is not equally useful for all three, and we say so.
Crane rental and crane service
Taxi-crane work booked the same week: rooftop HVAC sets, steel erection, precast, tree assists, hot tubs, machinery sets. The biggest and most reliable inbound market on Google, with the most junk to filter. Campaigns are built by crane class and tonnage, by job type and by radius.
Rigging and machinery moving
Plant relocations, machinery moving, millwright work, dismantling, safe and art moves. Lower volume than crane rental, larger tickets, and the buyer is a plant manager or a GC rather than a homeowner. The negative list is different too: supervisor courses, rigging hardware, theatre and sailing rigging, and the election stories the word drags in.
Heavy lift and specialized transport
Engineered lifts, transformer sets, turbine erection, SPMT moves, refinery turnarounds. This work comes through relationships and bid lists. Where a client wants a credibility presence we run a small, tightly negatived campaign. If most of your revenue is project work, the strategy call may end with us telling you to spend the money elsewhere.
How the fee works
Quoted on the strategy call once we know your market and fleet. How the pricing works.
Setup
A one-time fee covers conversion tracking and the campaign build. That is the only money up front.
Until it works
No management fee until the account books you a job. Not a click, not a lead: a job on your calendar.
After that
A flat monthly fee, with local SEO included at no extra cost. Ad spend is paid to Google directly and is separate.
Leaving
No contract. If you are not happy with the conversions, 30 days’ notice and you are out. The account and its data stay yours.
What we do not do
- Websites, SEO content, social media, review platforms, or any bundle of them
- More than three new accounts in a month
- Reports built around impressions and click-through rate
- Campaigns outside phone-led service work: if you make overhead cranes or sell used equipment, we are the wrong call
One channel, and one Google Ads consultant rather than a rotating account team. Alamgir Anwar founded KLEXA in 2020, has spent five years buying crane clicks in New York, and runs every account personally: no account managers, and no more than three new accounts a month.
What clients say
“My business was small and unestablished before Alamgir. He’s turned it into an always-growing enterprise.”
“He treats our ad spend like it’s his own money and focuses on real business outcomes, not vanity metrics.”
“One of the very best in Google Ads. His attention to detail is next to none, he works hard and honestly, and most importantly, he gets his clients the results they want.”
Get a free Google Ads audit
Already spending on Google Ads? A free Google Ads audit reads your account and tells you where the money is going.
What we check
- What is being counted as a lead: calls and quote forms, or map taps and page views
- Ninety days of search terms, sorted into jobs, courses, hardware rental, job seekers, competitor names and out-of-area cities, with the dollars attached
- Whether the negative list exists, is crane-specific, and has been touched in the last month
- Location settings: radius from the yard or the whole state, presence or presence-and-interest
- Campaign structure, brand protection, and what Performance Max is being fed
- Whether the bid strategy matches the amount of real conversion data
- Desktop against mobile conversion, and whether ads run when nobody answers the phone
- The landing page, from tonnage ranges to the NCCCO line
What you get
- A written summary, one to two pages: the three biggest leaks with an estimate of what each costs a month, and the first three changes we would make
- A 20-minute walkthrough on a call, with the account open
- No obligation. If you take the findings to your current agency, that is fine
Never run ads? There is nothing to audit yet. Book a Strategy Call instead.
Book your free audit call
Pick a time for the 20-minute walkthrough. We go through your account with you, then send the written summary.
Book a Free 20-Minute Ads ReviewPrefer email? Write to [email protected] with your monthly spend and service area.
Questions crane owners ask
Does Google Ads work for a small crane company?
Yes, for operated taxi-crane and rigging work booked by phone. A regional yard cannot out-rank the national rental platforms organically for Keyword hidden, but it can buy the top position for the exact phrase inside its own radius. The account we manage in New York has produced 582 tracked leads since January 2024 at a 2026 cost per lead of $187.
Do you work with crane companies outside New York?
Yes, across the United States. New York is where we learned the niche; most regional markets have lower click costs and less competition, which usually means a lower cost per lead than the figures we publish.
How do you target our service area?
By radius from each yard, with location settings limited to people physically in the area, bid adjustments by distance ring, and exclusions for cities you will not send a truck to. Project and heavy-lift terms get their own campaign with a wider reach where the economics justify it.
Can you advertise bare rental as well as operated?
Operated and maintained rental is where inbound demand is: someone has a lift to make this week. Bare-rental searches skew to contractors comparing rates across the national platforms. If you offer both, operated work gets the budget and bare rental gets a small campaign with its own negatives and its own ads.
Do you need access to our Google Ads account?
For the audit we need read-only access via your ten-digit customer ID. To manage the account we link it to our manager account. Ownership, billing and data stay with you, and you can remove our access at any time.
What do you need from us each week?
About ten minutes: tell us which of the week’s tracked calls and quote requests were real jobs, which were quotes you are chasing, and which were noise. That feedback goes back into the account so bidding learns what a job looks like.
Do you run Performance Max?
Only once the account has clean call and form conversions to learn from, and never with map taps or page views counted as conversions. In our crane and rigging account, Performance Max fed with real conversions has run at $175 per lead against $332 for the main Search campaign over the same period.
What if we already have an agency?
Start with the free audit. You get a written summary of what is being counted as a lead, where spend is going, and how the geo targeting is set. If your agency is doing a good job, we will say so.
How much ad spend does a crane company need?
Enough that the account can gather real conversions, which in a dense metro means a four-figure monthly budget rather than ten dollars a day. For scale: the New York account we manage has spent $150,000 since January 2024 and produced 582 tracked leads, a blended $258 per lead, with 2026 running at $187. A regional market with cheaper clicks needs less. If your budget cannot cover a meaningful share of the searches in your radius, we would rather narrow the radius than spread the money thin, and we will say that on the call.
How long before it produces leads?
The first weeks go on tracking and negatives rather than scale: calls from ads, calls from the website, quote forms and a first-time-caller upload, then a crane-specific negative list and manual bids while the account gathers data. Leads usually arrive in that period, but the numbers are not worth judging yet. We move to target cost-per-acquisition bidding only once there are enough real conversions to trust, and we report on a quarterly trend rather than a first-month spike.
What about Local Services Ads or Google Maps?
Local Services Ads eligibility for crane rental varies and is not offered in every market; we test it where Google allows it. Google Business Profile work is included in the monthly fee rather than sold separately, because a Keyword hidden search on Maps rings the same phone as a paid click.
How much does Google Ads management cost for a crane company?
A one-time setup fee covers conversion tracking and the campaign build, and that is the only money up front. After that there is no management fee until the account books you a job, then a flat monthly fee with Google Business Profile work included. The figure depends on your market, your radius and your fleet, so it is quoted on the strategy call rather than published as a package price. Ad spend is paid to Google directly and is separate.
Do you only work with crane and rigging companies?
Crane and rigging is the specialism, and it is the only industry we publish account data for. KLEXA also runs Google Ads for other phone-led service businesses, which you can see on klexa.io. What we do not take on is work outside phone-led services: overhead crane manufacturing and used-equipment dealing are a different search problem, and we will tell you that on the call.
Book a call and we will tell you whether Google Ads fits your fleet
Twenty minutes on your market, your radius and your crane classes. If paid search is the wrong channel for your work, we will say so on the call.